The book of Acts holds a special position
among the books referred to the age of grace, as it is concerned with the
practical side of many things later found in the epistles. Moreover, it also
shows the way those men of God as Paul, Peter, etc. walked with Him, thus
giving us their practical example. Such an example is recorded in Acts 16, a
chapter devoted to the visit of Paul to Philippi. It is this chapter that will
be the subject of our article.
Starting our excursion in Acts 16:6-8, we read:
Acts 16:6-8
"Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, being
forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, they came against Mysia
and were attempting to go to Bithynia but the Spirit did not permit them. So
passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas."
If you consult a map, you will see that what is
described in four lines here was a really long journey. Galatia, Phrygia and
Asia (Minor) were three regions that succeeded each other. Paul and those who
accompanied him, passed the first two (Phrygia and Galatia) and came to the
third one: Asia Minor. However, as the text says, God, the Holy Spirit, forbade
them to preach the Word there, and thus they went north towards Mysia.
Nevertheless, when they tried to move from there to Bithynia, God forbade them
again. As a result, they passed by Mysia and went to Troas, on the Aegean sea.
As it may be obvious from the above, Philippi was not
a place to which Paul and Silas were planning to go from the beginning. In fact
they tried twice to go to other places, but God forbade them. The reason He
forbade them is not because He did not desire His Word to be preached in those
areas. Actually, Paul went to Asia Minor some time later and as Acts 19:10
tells us: "All who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both
Jews and Greeks." Nevertheless, we all know that it is not possible to be
in two different places at the same time. In other words, the Word was
impossible to be preached simultaneously by the same man in Asia or Bithynia and in Philippi. Something necessarily had
to come first and something second. As it seems, from God's point of view,
Philippi and Greece had time priority over Asia and Bithynia. From these we can
conclude that God is not interested in just the preaching of the Word, but in
the preaching of the Word where HE wants, as HE wants and when HE wants. As
Ephesians 5:23 tells us:
"Christ
is the head of the church."
The church really has a boss, someone that should be
consulted for the things relative to it. This is neither you nor I, nor any
other mortal man, but Christ. Regarding our case, what the Boss really wanted
is recorded in verses 9-10:
Acts 16:9-10
"And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and
pleaded with him, saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. Now after he had
seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, assuredly gathering
THAT THE LORD HAD CALLED US TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THEM."
God had not called them that specific time, to preach
the Word in Asia and Bithynia. Instead He had called them to preach the Word in
Macedonia and finally in all the eastern mainland of Greece. How did they know
it? The Lord COMMUNICATED IT TO THEM through a vision. In fact, He communicated
it to them in such a way that they ASSUREDLY gathered that the Lord had led
them to go there. However, do you believe that God would have done this if they
were not ready to move where He wanted them to move? I do not think so. God
will not compel anyone to work in His field. However, if someone wants to
work for Him - which is exactly what He expects from us 1 - he should not make up his own way about
how, when and where he is going to move, but he should consult the Master who
is ultimately responsible to decide on these.
Having God's clear command to sail to Macedonia, Paul
and those who accompanied him left immediately. Verses 11-12 tells us:
Acts 16:11-12
"Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran with a straight course to
Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi,
which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were
staying in that city for some day".
God had told them to go to Macedonia. So they did not
stop to preach the word in Samothrace, but went directly to Phillipi, the
foremost city of that part of Macedonia. There, several things happened that we
will see below.
Starting in verses 13-15 we read:
Acts 16:13-15
"And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where
prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met
there. Now a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple from the city of
Thyatira, who revered God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, to heed the
things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged
us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house,
and stay. And she constrained us".
Did Lydia revere God? Yes, that's what the passage
says. However, was she saved? NO, for she did not know the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thus, she was like Cornelius: he was a devout man, who feared God with all his
household and gave alms generously. He prayed to God always (Acts 10:2). Yet he
needed Peter to come to his home and tell him words by which, as the angel told
him, he and his household would be saved (Acts 11:14). Similarly, Lydia revered
God. Yet, she needed someone to come and tell her about Jesus Christ, to
believe and be saved. And that's exactly what happened: God had Paul come all
the way from Cilicia to speak the Word to her. She believed it and was made the
first recorded believer in mainland Europe. However, this was but the
beginning.
Verses 16-18 tell us:
Acts 16: 16-18
"And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, that a certain damsel
possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much
profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out,
saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, who proclaim to us the
way of salvation. And this she did for many days."
This girl was obviously possessed with a devil spirit
that through her, seemed to advertise Paul and his mission there. At a first
glance, it may appear that what we have here is the paradox of the devil
supporting the work of the Lord!! However, would it ever be possible that
something like this could happen? I do not think so. As Paul said to Elymas,
another devil-possessed man:
Acts 13:9-10
"Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the holy spirit, looked
intently at him and said, O full of all DECEIT AND ALL FRAUD, YOU SON OF THE
DEVIL, YOU ENEMY OF ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS, WILL YOU NOT CEASE PERVERTING THE
STRAIGHT WAYS OF THE LORD?"
What the devil is continuously seeking (he never
ceases from this) is: TO PERVERT THE RIGHT WAYS OF THE LORD. Hence, the only
reason he seemed to proclaim the same things as Paul, was exactly because he
wanted to PERVERT the right ways of the Lord. It is not really difficult to
understand how he planned to do this. Just imagine how much the Word that Paul
was preaching was degraded by its outward agreement with the proclamations of
this devil-possessed girl. To the locals she was but a spokesperson of the
ancient Greek god Apollo. We know this for the ancient text does not say that
the girl was possessed with a spirit of divination, but that she had "a
spirit, a Python". As Zodhiates tells us2:
"Python
was the Greek name given to the mythological serpent or dragon that lived at
Pytho beneath Mount Parnassus and guarded the Delphic Oracle. The name then
became the surname of Apollo, the god of divination in Greek mythology, and
hence applied to all oracular and divinatory spirits."
Obviously, this girl was considered by the locals as
one through whom Apollo spoke. That's why the text says that she had a spirit,
a Python. Moreover, her "most high God", and the one that those
locals perceived as such, was not the one true God, the Father of the Lord
Jesus Christ3, but ...... Zeus. It is now easy to
understand what perversion she brought to Paul's preaching and that what the
adversary wanted to do through her, was not to proclaim but to "PERVERT
the right ways of the Lord." Fortunately, he did not succeed in his
purposes.
Really, Acts 16:18 tells
us:
"But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you
in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that very
hour".
Paul knew through the operation of discerning of
spirits (I Corinthians 12:7-10) that what spoke through this girl was a devil
spirit. That's why he addressed it so directly, casting it out "that very
hour".
Unfortunately, the deliverance given to this girl did
not make everyone happy. Her masters earned a lot of money from the deceitful
works of the devil spirit and when they saw that "the hope of their
gains" was gone:
Acts 16:19-24
"They seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace to the
rulers. And they brought them to the magistrates and said, These men, being
Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they teach customs which are not lawful
for us, being Romans, to receive or observe. Then the multitude rose up
together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes, and
commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on
them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.
Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison, and fastened
their feet in the stocks."
After such tribulation, many of us would have started
complaining to God, blaming Him for what had happened. Yet, murmuring is not
what the Word tells us to do on similar occasions. Really, as I Peter 4:16
says:
I Peter 4:16
"If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, BUT LET HIM
GLORIFY GOD IN THIS MATTER".
That's exactly what Paul and Silas did:
Acts 16:25
"But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and
the prisoners were listening to them."
Apart from the fact that those two badly tortured
guys, were praying and singing to God, see also that all the prisoners were
listening to them. The word "listening" in this passage, is a
translation of the Greek verb "epakroomai" that does not simply mean
to "listen", but "to listen PAYING PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO WHAT
IS SAID4". See then what happened:
Acts 16:26
"And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the
prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's
chains were loosed".
To understand the importance of the above event let's
for a minute put ourselves in the position of one of those prisoners. So, let's
suppose that you are in prison listening with particular attention to two badly
tortured guys that glorify God and suddenly an earthquake happens that
......loosens YOUR chains and opens ALL the doors of the prison. Wouldn't you
be reminded of this phenomenon all your life? Would this not be enough to make
you call upon Paul's and Silas' God? I think so. In fact, let us see the
immediate reaction of one of the guys that was there that night:
Acts 16:27-30
"And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep, and seeing the prison
doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to
kill himself. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do yourself no harm:
for we are all here. Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down
trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out, and said, Sirs, what
must I do to be saved?"
How was this guy sure that Paul and Silas were able to
give him the right answer to such a critical question? The answer is because he
heard them praising God and saw how God replied through the earthquake and what
followed. He was therefore persuaded these two truly represented God. That's
why he asked them so straightforwardly. Let's now see Paul's and Silas' reply:
Acts 16:31
"And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,
you and your household."
Really, I do not know how many people today would be
so straightforward about salvation as Paul and Silas were. "BELIEVE ON THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST AND YOU WILL BE SAVED." That's really it. You believe
you are saved. You do not believe you do not get saved. As Romans 10:9 also
tells us:
Romans 10:9
"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in you
heart that God raised him from the dead, YOU WILL BE SAVED".
How simple it is! Returning to the record of the
prison keeper, after Paul and Silas gave him the answer he needed, they
continued teaching him further:
Acts 16:32-33
"And they spoke the Word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his
house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes;
and immediately he and all his family were baptized. And when he had brought
them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed
in God with all his household".
Note the time that all this happened. It happened
AFTER midnight, for it was already midnight when Paul and Silas were praying
and singing to God (verse 25). After midnight therefore, Paul, Silas, the
prison keeper and his household had a wonderful fellowship in which many souls
were saved and rejoiced in the Lord!! Who could really imagine that this could
happen? And yet here it is in the Scripture. However, would this have occurred
if Paul and Silas instead of glorifying God they were murmuring to Him? NO.
They glorified God in their troubles, teaching, through their praises and
prayers, the Word to the other prisoners. God backed His Word with a great sign
that certainly had tremendous impact on all. In fact, the prison keeper with
all his family, believed that very night and had a great fellowship with Paul
and Silas well after midnight!! Really what a blessing it is to read such
events. And what a blessing and healing this would have been for Paul and
Silas, after the torture they suffered. However, the blessings did not stop
there. The next day:
Acts 16:35-40
"The magistrates sent the officers, saying, Let those men go. And the
keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying The magistrates have
sent to let you go: Now therefore depart, and go in peace. But Paul said to
them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into
prison; and now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come
themselves and get us out. And the officers told these words to the
magistrates, and they were afraid, when they heard that they were Romans. And
they came and PLEADED WITH THEM, and brought them out, and asked them to depart
from the city. So they went out of the prison, and entered the house of Lydia:
and when they had seen the brethren, they encourage them and departed".
At the end of the day, it was the magistrates that
were humiliated and not Paul and Silas. In fact, they PLEADED with Paul and
Silas to depart from their city. However, they had already managed to set up a
church there. This church would have never been created, as many other churches
in Greece, if Paul and his company had not obeyed God's will to go to
Macedonia, but acted according to their own wishes. Nevertheless, the fact that
they obeyed God's will, it did not mean that they did not suffer persecution.
Yet, God even turned persecution to good and through it many souls were saved,
increasing the church in that place and giving great deliverance and
encouragement to His people.